Cong, TMC reach accord for Assembly polls

New Delhi/Kolkata: Ending weeks of suspense, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress on Monday agreed on seat-sharing for the April-May West Bengal Assembly polls. Trinamool will now contest for 227 seats while the Congress gets 65 constituencies.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who returned from a week-long tour of Britain on Sunday, played a key role in breaking the impasse, a party leader said.

"There is no issue of a compromise. We are committed to honour the alliance and agreed formula," Congress leader in charge of West Bengal Shakeel Ahmed said.

Congress sources said Gandhi was keen on the alliance to stay together and on the seat-sharing accord to be sealed at the earliest.

The first indication of the breakthrough came when Trinamool circles in Kolkata said that Banerjee would not be announcing any candidate for the 64 seats that she had originally kept for the Congress.

The Trinamool gesture came after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the main troubleshooter for the Congress, spoke to Banerjee in Kolkata over telephone.

On Friday, Banerjee had unilaterally announced the list of Trinamool candidates and left 64 seats for the Congress. She said her party would announce candidates for the 64 seats too if the Congress did not name its candidates by Monday.

Voting for the 294 seats of the West Bengal assembly is to be held in six phases from April 18 to May 10. The results will be declared May 13.